Von Ormy

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San Antonio to Dallas

Leaving San Antonio this morning wasn’t difficult. I didn’t feel ‘settled’ there the way I did on the beach. It also helped that I was heading to another good spot.

I was up early since I ‘had so much to do’ since it was departure day. Let’s see… I made coffee and breakfast, tidied the kitchen, checked my email, put away the computer, secured the filing cabinet, and then all I had to do was back out the motorhome so I could put it in the right position for towing. And then I discovered I finally mastered hooking up my truck since I got it done in one shot. In other words, ‘I had so much to do’ it literally took 15 minutes to go from ‘okay, breakfast is done’ to ‘oh, it’s time to say my good-byes’!

I took my departure from my neighbours, then headed over to Croft and Norma’s. I just learned that they are still in San Antonio. Yes, these are the same people who told me that they would not have time to detour to San Antonio to see me, or even drive an hour from Laredo to meet me halfway. 😀 It was so good to be able to spend so much time with them. I was gifted with their 2012 Good Sam RV park directory, which means I can finally retire the 2006 directory the previous owners left in Miranda! 😀

From the RV park, it was just a couple of clicks to I-35. The Valero on the corner looked like a great place to get gas as it is angled in such a way that you can drive straight through and get right on the highway. I wasn’t sure there was enough overhead clearance, so I had asked Croft for his opinion. He thought it looked fine. It was only as I was driving into the gas station this morning that I had asked Roof Ripper Randle to gauge a clearance height… 😉

But it was all good and I ran my card twice to get a complete fill. After that, I had about four hours of I-35 N ahead of me.

To my surprise, Austin traffic was as terrible as I had been warned it would be, and this was on a Sunday morning!!! I white knuckled through there and was happy to reach a fairly quiet stretch of highway after, if only for a short while.

I had unusual foresight last night to check rest areas on my route and there was one just before Salado, almost exactly halfway. It was the perfect place to take a lunch break.

Shortly thereafter, I-35 splits into I-35 EN and I-35WN. Not NE and NW, but EN and WN. WN goes to Fort Worth and EN goes to Dallas.

There was a rest area about 45 minutes from my destination, so I called my host, Ms. Cinnamon, to let her know I was incoming! I had told her I would be arriving between 3 and 7, most likely around 5PM. My ETA was about 3:30!

Thankfully, Ms. Cinnamon’s directions matched my GPS’ route, so I was able to focus on the road when I got into Dallas and not worry about routing myself. The drive through town would have been fine had there not been a big accident that required me to get over about three lanes of traffic and then immediately get back over them again. Drivers were mostly courteous, but for the final lane change before the accident, I was only able to get over because a cop forced the folks in the other lane to let me in.

I only had a very short distance to drive on normal city streets right at the end of my journey, so I got to Ms. Cinnamon’s feeling quite good and not too frazzled. Oh, I was tired, but this had been a very good day of urban driving.

She got me rehydrated (um, with water!), then we got Miranda parked. I technically have FHU (20A), although I can’t leave my sewer hooked up and I never leave my water hooked up since I live off the fresh water tank. Dallas has no good RV parking opportunities, not even any conveniently located RV parks, so having Ms. Cinnamon as a blog reader is a real blessing!

Once I was squared away, I was shown a luxurious bathroom with fluffy towels and just about all the products I could want to have a decadent shower. I think I was under the hot water at least half an hour. 😀

With me refreshed, we headed out to dinner, the subject of my next post. After dinner, she showed me around the neighbourhood a little, including scenic White Rock Lake.

We’re going to Dealey Plaza together tomorrow. The rest of the week is up in the air. I could be here a couple of days or even a whole week. The weather is noticeably cooler here and I really am not eager to get any further north…

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Ice Cream Social

I have been so anti-social during my time at Hidden Valley. There are two other lovely ladies here and I have had to blow them off every time they have invited me over for a chat because I’ve had other commitments.

They came over together this evening and even though I have a deadline to meet, I just couldn’t say no! Enough with the rudeness!

We sat and had a good chat over ice cream and then I got an opening to invite them in to show off the rig. Their quick acquiescence told me they were looking for such a window of opportunity themselves!

One of the ladies had been driving into San Antonio with her rig for work and is very happy to have found a new job that she can bike to. She walks her cat on a leash every day! She’s also found my blog. *waves at you* The other lady is working at the Sam Houston site for a few more weeks. She has a really cute little mop of a dog.

Both ladies have the same name, which is the name of my host in Dallas! When I got back to my computer, I had a reminder to make a call to my Dallas host and I was confused for a second since the reminder was just a name and I had just spent time with two ladies with that name.

I didn’t think I could eat again today after the lunch I had, but ice cream doesn’t count; right? Even if it has chocolate and peanut butter in it (OMG); right? Especially when it’s 100 billion degrees out; right?

 

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Breakfast With Half of San Antonio

Croft emailed this morning to ask if I wanted to join them for breakfast before going to Camping World. He had Googled best breakfast in San Antonio, or something along those lines, and got the Magnolia Pancake Haus. It was out in the middle of seemingly nowhere and half of San Antonio was waiting for a table. We had to wait just over an hour to be seated!

Norma went to the spa next door to try to get her eyebrows done, but others had had the same idea and that place was packed, too!

We ended up sitting outside and chatted with the other people waiting. Everyone said that we were lucky to have found the restaurant and that it would totally be worth the wait.

When we finally got a seat, I was pleased that it wasn’t in a super crowded and boisterous dining room. We started off with absolutely delicious coffee, which is always a good sign at a breakfast joint.

Since this was a German restaurant, I made sure to try their sausage, and wasn’t disappointed! My ‘short stack’ of pancakes was light and fluffy. Yum!

Norma had the bananas foster French toast, which ended up being dense slices of banana bread served French toast-style with strawberries and black berries. I had a bite and it was really good! The portion was ridiculous, though, so she brought a lot home. She also enjoyed her two poached eggs on the side.

Croft ordered the specialty, which I will not attempt to spell. It’s a thin pancake stuffed with apples and spices. Really good too (yes, I sampled some of his also!), but there’s no way I could have eaten all that. I’ve really cut back on how much sugar I eat and one bite was more than enough for me.

If you’re into breakfast food, you really need to try Magnolia Pancake Haus in San Antonio!

We headed to the Camping World after. It’s in New Braunfels, north of San Antonio. I have been looking for knobs for my Atwood stove for years and keep striking out. This parts guy was at least able to get me a SKU # for Camping World so I can try to find some at another store along my route. Every other Camping World I’ve stopped at I’ve been told that they don’t have those knobs and good luck finding them.

With breakfast taking so long, we only just got in, at 4PM! I don’t think any of us are going to be eating tonight!

I’m paid up here at the RV park up to and including tonight. I’m pulling out late morning and am expected in Dallas dinnertimeish.

I’ve enjoyed my stay in San Antonio except for one irksome detail that never ceases to surprise me: the internet connection SUCKS. I’ve got full bars on my phone and I have slower than dial up internet! This is surprising considering how close I am to a major city. I had high speed internet on the beach! The other night, I had to download a 200MB file and ended up having to try four McDonalds and a Starbucks in between them to find a connection stable enough to let me download the file, and it still took two hours! I’m trying to do some research right now and sites keep timing out. I am really tired of losing so much time because of a crappy internet connection. Hopefully Dallas will be better!

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Campbell River Visitors

I spent the afternoon with Croft and Norma catching up on everything that doesn’t get discussed on our blogs. They might be staying a second night. If so, we are going on a field trip to Camping World tomorrow. 🙂

I can’t help but marvel at the magic of this nomadic life that makes it such that you not only never know when you will next see friends, but also where you will meet again. It is a very long way from Campbell River to San Antonio, and I don’t just mean in terms of distance.

Norma wanted a Cracker Barrel dinner to celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary (wow!), so I was invited to come along (thank you!). I had the sugar cured ham for the first time (YUM) and took home a lemonade (not overly sweet and made with real lemons, a real treat!).

We had sun this afternoon again (YAY) so I made sure to unplug everything before heading over to Croft and Norma’s. I did that yesterday before going on my walk and came in almost 30AH up. I left at about 58AH down today and came home to a FULL reading. I would be frustrated with my badly working monitor if reader airmon hadn’t posted an explanation for that bizarre phenomenon. Instead, I am doing a happy dance!